THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Ill 



liug little pieces of comb containing brood, 

 or Imudliug quosu cells, the lingers usually 

 become more or less daubed (yes, that is the 

 word) and in handling a memorandum book 

 it will eventually become soiled, and then 

 how it looks 1 Tlie pencil must dangle from 

 the book by a string, or else be fished up out 

 of some place. If that place is the pocket 

 the soiled fingers sjil the clothing around 

 the pocket, and if there is anything that 

 mikes me feel more uncomfortable than to 

 have my hands " stuck up " it is to feel the 

 stickiness of honey on my clothing. I still 

 think I should prefer to dispense with record 

 books, although I must admit that they have 

 some advantages, but Mr. Mclntyre has 

 given the most simple and compact method 

 of keeping a record of nuclei with a pencil, 

 and I certainly think it worthy of a place in 

 the Review. 



Alley's Self-Hiver Does Not Fill the Bill. 



One of my own townsmen, Mr. M. S. 

 West, writes to Gleanings giving his own 

 experience and that of his customers with 

 the Alley sjlf-hiver. He says: — 



" In response to your call for reports con- 

 cerning the Alley automatic hiver, I submit 

 the following: 



In the year 1889 I pui-chased a number of 

 the queen and drone traps, and found them 

 useful in hiving new swarms. In 1890 the 

 automatic hiver seemed to promise so well 

 that I purchased fifty as a trial venture. 

 That year being an extremely poor one in 

 this locality, though a few purchased them, 

 no one had a chance to give them a trial. I 

 could not try them myself that season, as I 

 had not a single new swarm. 



This spring, after selling the rest of the 

 fifty, I sent for twenty-five more, about half 

 of which have been sold, so that there are 

 now in use between fifty and sixty among 

 my customers. 



I have not from this number had one really 

 favorable report, but a number have re- 

 ported unfavorably. A common complaint 

 is, that the hiver becomes so clogged with 

 drones as to interfere with the passage of 

 the field workers. 



Early in the season I placed three on the 

 three strongest out of ten strong colonies be- 

 longing to a neighbor. Those colonies cast 

 no swarms, though all tiie others did so. 

 While most bee keepers have had a fair 

 amount of swarming, it lias not been an 

 old-fashioned swarming season, or I should 

 be inclined to recommend tlic Kiver as a non- 

 swarming device. I have noticed the same 

 effect in my own yard, where hivers were 

 early placed on colonies showing strong 

 signs of swarming. Days went by before 

 the swarms issued, and then the bees went 

 back instead of into tiie new hive prepared 

 for them. It was ten days before they came 

 out again, probably with a new queen. That 



time the hiver was off. so they were gathered 

 off a tree. The next time a weak swarm 

 was caught, the most of the bees returned to 

 the old hive. At another time, with an after 

 swarm, several young (lueens got through 

 the hiver, rendering if of no use in that case. 



The later form of the hiver may be made 

 to serve an important purpose, aside from 

 its main object. The two small sections, 

 with perforated zinc in the front, may be 

 used in retaining swarms after they have 

 been hived. 



I am very sorry that I am not able to make 

 a favorable report on the hiver. A device 

 that will effect its purpose every time will be 

 eagerly purchased by the farmer members of 

 the bee keeping fraternity, especially as it 

 will enable them to keep bees without inter- 

 ruption to other work in swarming time, and 

 consequent loss of time demanded by other 

 interests. 



I hope Mr. Alley may yet give us a really 

 practical hiver; but this one, at least with 

 me so far, does not fill the bill. 



M. S. West. 



Flint, Mich., Aug. 24. 



[This report may be exceptionally bad, but 

 it rather strikes us that these automatic 

 swarmers were boomed pretty heavily before 

 they were even tested. If the majority of 

 the others who have tried them have had 

 similar failures, it means a big disappoint- 

 ment." — Ed. Gleanings. 



I presume some of my readers will wonder 

 why I, as owner of an apiary and editor of a 

 bee journal, have not given the hiver a trial. 

 The main reason is that the past two seasons 

 have been so poor that there ha^ not been 

 enough swarming to give it a test. For my 

 own use I sliould not care for it, even if it 

 were always successful, and this would ^ 

 probably be the case with every bee keeper 

 who is constantly among his bees during 

 swarming time. If the hiver would always, 

 or nearly always, hive a swarm that issued, 

 and do the work well, it would be a great 

 help to all who own a few colonies that they 

 are obliged to leave unwatched. Their use 

 would also be a great advantage in the man- 

 agement of an out apiary. That these hivers 

 have sometimes hived swarms there is no 

 doubt, but with my knowledge of bee keep- 

 ing I can see two objections to their use. 

 Mr. West mentions luth of these. One is 

 that the hiver becomes clogged with drones, 

 thus interfering with the passage of the 

 workers. So long as the hiver is on the hive 

 no drones can leave the hive. Of course 

 they try to leave it, and the crowd of great, 

 l)ig burly fellows crowding and pushing to 

 get out, must seriously hinder the workers. 

 It is different with the drone and queen trap. 

 In their efforts to escape the drones pass up 

 through the wire cone and never come back 



